There was an interesting article in the paper the other day about vitamins. It asked the question “Do you really need all those supplement pills?” I was eating breakfast at the time, and was just about ready to take my pills which consisted of approximately 50 supplements . . . or maybe it just seems like that many. Whatever the amount, it’s too much. The article says the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition notes that there’s not enough evidence to recommend taking them or not taking them. So why even bring up the subject? And Paul Coates, director of the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements states the following: “If you’re taking a multivitamin, there’s no reason to stop. But if you’re not taking a multivitamin, there’s also no reason to start taking one, either.” What the hell does that mean? I repeated that quote over and over again out loud, thinking it would make more sense to me if I could hear myself saying it, but it only made me light headed and loopy! So I leaped up from the breakfast table, grabbed all my vitamins, raced into the bathroom – bouncing off the walls as I ran -- and flushed them down the toilet! I stood there, twirling around and laughing hysterically as I watched them swirl around the toilet bowl. Then I began waiting for the toilet to start spitting up. I could just visualize the water gushing over the rim and all the vitamins skidding across my bathroom floor! It never happened, but I remembered an article I had read about not flushing pills down the toilet as they might, at some time, make their way into the water we drink. But all I flushed were vitamins which would just make us healthy. I didn’t flush any prescription medications like Prozac, xanax or ecstasy which could make us all anxiety free and more relaxed. Now that wouldn’t be such a bad thing, would it? Come to think of it, I don’t think you can get ecstasy with a prescription.

I don’t know how much of that actually happened. Maybe I was just dreaming . . . but where did the dream start and where did it end? I don’t know the answer to that, but I really liked it!

I finally settled down and returned to my breakfast table where the latest Time magazine was sitting. I immediately turned to the last page – that’s the way I read that magazine – back to front. The last page always has something that catches your eye, and this one was no exception. There was a quote by Donald Rumsfeld, philosopher -- that’s what it actually called him. I think the quote explains perfectly what was written in the vitamin article and just what it meant. Here it is: “There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say, we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don’t know.” I think Donald did an excellent job explaining the entire vitamin situation . . . we know nothing. Donald knows what that’s like!

That quote also sent me spinning around, but I hope to get myself under control pretty soon.